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POLITICO 44

Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce is threatening to encourage the state’s utilities to cut off energy delivery to Los Angeles if the city does not back down from its boycott over the state’s new immigration law.

“If an economic boycott is truly what you desire, I will be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements so Los Angeles no longer receives any power from Arizona-based generation,” Pierce, a Republican, wrote Tuesday to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat.

“I am confident that Arizona’s utilities would be happy to take those electrons off your hands,” he continued. “If, however, you find that the City Council lacks the strength of its convictions to turn off the lights in Los Angeles and boycott Arizona power, please reconsider the wisdom of attempting to harm Arizona’s economy.”

Pierce is one of five members of the statewide elected commission that regulates utilities in the state.

Arizona sells a significant amount of power and water to Los Angeles, a fact Villaraigosa cited in his original letter to Arizona lawmakers reprimanding them over the controversial immigration law.

In his letter, Pierce wrote that “as a statewide elected member of the Arizona Corporation Commission overseeing Arizona’s electric and water utilities, I too am keenly aware of the ‘resources and ties’ we share with the City of Los Angeles. In fact, approximately 25 percent of the electricity consumed in Los Angeles is generated by power plants in Arizona.”

“People of goodwill can disagree over the merits” of the law, the commissioner wrote. “A statewide economic boycott of Arizona is not a message sent in goodwill.”

Villaraigosa was in Washington on Wednesday to meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and President Barack Obama.

Villaraigosa has not responded directly to Pierce’s letter, but a spokesman for the mayor said in a statement that he “stands strongly behind the City Council and he will not respond to threats from the state that has isolated itself from an America that values freedom, liberty and basic civil rights.”

(a) Every law enforcement agency in California shall fully cooperate with the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service regarding any person who is arrested if he or she is suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws. (b) With respect to any such person who is arrested, and suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws, every law enforcement agency shall do the following: (1) Attempt to verify the legal status of such person as a citizen of the United States, an alien lawfully admitted as a permanent resident, an alien lawfully admitted for a temporary period of time or as an alien who is present in the United States in violation of immigration laws. The verification process may include, but shall not be limited to, questioning the person regarding his or her date and place of birth, and entry into the United States, and demanding documentation to indicate his or her legal status. (2) Notify the person of his or her apparent status as an alien who is present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws and inform him or her that, apart from any criminal justice proceedings, he or she must either obtain legal status or leave the United States. (3) Notify the Attorney General of California and the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service of the apparent illegal status and provide any additional information that may be requested by any other public entity. (c) Any legislative, administrative, or other action by a city, county, or other legally authorized local governmental entity with jurisdictional boundaries, or by a law enforcement agency, to prevent or limit the cooperation required by subdivision (a) is expressly prohibited.

Sounds very similar to the provisions of SB 1070, the bill that prompted LA’s City Council to launch its boycott of Arizona. Will they also now boycott their own state? They do seem to be conducting a boycott of common sense and legal scholarship at City Hall.

TURN OUT THE LIGHT! Washington wants to take Ariz to court over this Law and it turns out none of them including the President have even read to Law to discover it only reflects the enforcement of the already in place Federal Immigration Laws! This whole thing is a JOKE. Pure Politics and then have the POTUS stand up with the President of Mexico and make his little speech today is another JOKE! DON'T GET CAUGHT IN MEXICO IN AN ILLEGAL STATUS!

Why shouldn't the U.S. laws and Mexican laws on illegal immigration be equal? We passed the Free Trade Agreement and are providing jobs to Mexicans in Mexico at wages that are higher than the wage rate before the agreement was passed. Our factories and jobs have been exported, yet we still have millions of illegal immigrants entering our country every year, taking additional jobs from legal residents. The argument that these are all jobs that Americans won’t do is nonsense. I know plenty of people who work in construction and illegal immigration drives down their wages and at times drives them into unemployment. If Mexico has a strict illegal immigration policy why shouldn’t the United States? If we provide health care, schooling, and other federal and state services for free to illegal aliens why shouldn’t Mexico do the same? If I lived in Mexico and called my local large business or utility company would I get the option of listening to an English or Spanish version of their phone menu services and be able to speak with an English speaking service attendant? Legal citizens in America are subsidizing illegal immigrants and legal immigrants who choose not to learn the language of the country that they choose to live in, legally or not. Why should I pay more for electricity because the electric company has to employ Spanish speaking phone assistants? In my State of Michigan an illegal immigrant can legally obtain a drivers license and vote in local, state and federal elections. Why shouldn’t Mexico afford the same privileges to their illegal immigrants? What would happen to me if I was high school age and managed to enter a Mexican school, free of charge, as an illegal immigrant and flew the American flag above the Mexican flag (turned upside down) from the school’s flag mast? The opposite happens here, why shouldn’t the practice be allowed in Mexico? Link:http://michellemalkin.com/arch...

We hear illegal immigrants marching in our streets telling us that they are not breaking our laws. They are asking for equality. They are demanding citizenship. On our soil they are carrying the flag of another country – Mexico – the place that they left for a better life and we provide them with our tax dollars. Mexico should do the same for anyone who wants to walk in to Mexico, legal or not, because President Fox demands it of our nation. The Mexican government is demanding that Georgia to change recently passed legislation that denies state services to illegal aliens from any other country, not just Mexico. Mexico demands that we allow state and federal services to illegal immigrants. Why shouldn’t Mexico do the same? Hipocresía????

Gary Pearce is a politician with some courage. LA is a disaster and soon all of us will be sending them more money. California is the state I am boycotting and will for sure take my next vacation to Arizona. Way to go Arizona. If the feds won't do their job then take care of the mess created by the illegals.

Sounds very similar to the provisions of SB 1070, the bill that prompted LA’s City Council to launch its boycott of Arizona. Will they also now boycott their own state? They do seem to be conducting a boycott of common sense and legal scholarship at City Hall.

Well stated, Dublj! The whole country needs to start absorbing more common sense.

I sympathize with Arizona's need to control illegal immigrants but the current legislation is racist and this country has been fighting racism for far too long to allow any more to develop.

yeah...... cause that power is free... so arizona wants los angeles to spend LESS money there?

good luck with your... i have no idea what you could call that.

you people pretend like youre going to boycott california products like you ever bought them in the first place. youre the same people who tell people they dont like buying stuff made in china but everything you still buy is made in china.

You offer vague threats without proof, meanwhile i'll be spending a week in Fresno, Sacramento and Los Angeles the begining of June for my honeymoon.

Your pretend threats and promises of vacations in arizona dont match up to actual plans.

I don't understand how so many people can be ok w/ mandating that police ask for papers under "reasonable suspicion". The rest of the law I agree with, but to force legal immigrants to carry around paprework to prove their citizenship IS reminiscent of Nazi Germany. I live in Arkansas, and I can tell you WITHOUT A DOUBT that most of the so-called conservatives consider ANYONE with brown skin to be one of "them illegals".

So while I support tougher immigration laws, AND I am definitely supportive of state's rights THIS BILL is overreaching. Just like everything in America, when something bad happens politicians and activists overreact.

The examples are endless. Why do we always have to overreact to everything that happens unexpectedly? This law is another example of that overreaction, and it saddens me that so many people are ok with it. Yet they get all up in arms about regulating Wall Street, or taxing the top 2% of earners in this country.

Any of you who think Obama's tax policies are "socialist", go back and look at your "conservative" hero Ronald Reagan. Read up on the Laffer Curve for taxation.

This is that classic comedy movie scene, where the obnoxious guy screams "get outta tha car!' at another driver, who turns out to be twice the of the guy doing the screaming . . .and he's the smallest guy in the car . . .

Something tells me that the Arizona utilities won't be giving up all those dollars they're getting from LA, unless the already cash-strapped (desperately so) state of Arizona steps in to buy that electricity, which means Pierce is just blathering to hear himself talk.

The rest of the law I agree with, but to force legal immigrants to carry around paprework to prove their citizenship

the federal government already requires this. When my stepfather came here, he had to carry his green card since he was a legal immigrant. Every other legal immigrant I know carries theirs as well and is required to. So yeah, that part of the arizona law is still reflecting the federal laws.